Rookie gets marks for courage - and for life

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Tour newcomer Laurina McGrath of Australia prepares for her scrape with a stretch of exposed coral during the semi-finals.Photo:Pierre Tostee/ASP

Tour debutante Laurina McGrath lost in the Billabong Pro semi-finals on Tuesday but earned the unabashed respect of peers, judges and officials after daring to go where few women had gone before.

McGrath has thick skin, but not as much as before.

The 21-year-old from Byron Bay rode onto dry reef in all her heats, a dangerous no-go area known as "the bricks" where coral sticks above the water.

She received cuts on her elbows, legs, feet and back but mostly her midriff, which will undoubtedly scar.

Peru's Sofia Mulanovich won the final from Hawaiian Rochelle Ballard in 1.2-metre swell after McGrath and Sydney's six-time world champion Layne Beachley had fallen in the semis.

In an incredible first year on the World Championship Tour, the unassuming McGrath, who doesn't have a sponsor, has two third placings and a fifth from her first three events to reach fourth on the standings.

Her most fearless ride came in the final minute against Mulanovich. She needed a six-pointer to make the final.

She rode as far as she could, being scraped along the reef, then stood on the coral stranded when power-skis couldn't get to her. Cutting her feet with nearly every step, she had to walk to where the water was deep enough for her to be picked up and taken to safety.

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The judges gave her a harsh 3.73.

"I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I hadn't gone all the way," McGrath said.

"You can't afford to hold back here, especially when it was pretty small like today. I didn't want to go home thinking I'd backed off even once. I'm glad I can say that I didn't.

"I told myself I was going to surf the wave to the very end and if the reef was there, I'd deal with it when I saw the cuts later.

"It stings a bit - I'll be right."

She was left with huge cuts down her right side that she described as war wounds.

They were painful enough, but when a doctor squeezed lime juice onto the cuts, she screamed.